15 Steps To Growing Your Tattooing Business in 2021

Letting your business grow passively through word of mouth is slow and it leaves success to chance. Taking action to grow through marketing grows your business much faster. This gives you complete control of the outcome, and it leads to repeat clients because you’ll be constantly proving why they should get tattooed by you instead of anyone else. 

To make that happen, we’ve put together a list of marketing tactics you can use as a tattoo artist to get more clients for your tattoo shop.

The 15 Steps To Market & Grow Your Tattoo Business

To be a successful tattoo shop, you need potential clients to trust you in two ways:

First, they need to trust your skill. The work of both you and the artists in your shop should speak for itself and their ability to create great tattoos.

Secondly, customers need to feel cared for. While this might not have been the case a few decades ago when tattooing was more underground, nowadays tattooing is more mainstream. And a more mainstream audience is going to look for a place that looks clean and sanitary and promises to treat them well.

These 15 marketing and growth strategies will help you prove to customers that they can trust your tattoo shop to not only deliver a great tattoo, but to offer a great customer experience as well.

Unless you or one of your shop’s artists has a huge following, the clients you’re going to see on a regular basis are locals. Let them know you’re invested in their community, and that you’re here to stay.

Being on social media isn’t enough. To really make sure you have a presence online, you need to have a website where potential customers can get all the information they need from you. Remember, a professional website is yourname.com. Do not use the “free” version where the website builder’s name has to appear in the url. 

An email list allows you to reach out to existing and future customers without paying for ads. Once you have someone's email, you’re able to establish a relationship with that person and get them to feel like they know you well. 

Consistently sending interesting tattoo stories, tips on tattoo care take care, etc. will establish you as an authority they can trust. No one likes to get spammed, but occasionally mentioning a special you have going on or that you’re open for appointments will encourage them to get more tattoos from you. 

Whenever someone gets a tattoo at your shop, they should be added to your email list.

While testimonials should be on your website, they’re getting their entire section in this article. Why? Because you can post as many testimonials as you’d like on your own website, but most clients will be looking for reviews outside of your shop’s online presence.

Although you will be posting honest reviews, not every customer is going to believe that they’re authentic. Plenty of businesses buy reviews or write reviews for themselves, and no business is going to post bad reviews on their site’s Testimonials page.

This is why Yelp and Google Reviews can make or break you. It’s where customers say what they really think - both good and bad. 

If someone writes a review about how clean the shop is and how great their tattoo turned out - you are instantly proven to be professional and an authority in tattooing. But if someone bashes your shop or your work, that’s all most people need to turn them off booking an appointment.

That’s why, if you do receive a bad review, you should try to resolve the issue as soon as possible. 

First, make sure the customer is talking about your shop. Some people might review the wrong place or have a personal problem with an artist and decide to badmouth the shop for revenge. Verifying that they did come in for a tattoo and that their complaint is valid is important.

If they do have a genuine complaint, do your best to reconcile. You can privately offer to touch up a tattoo or discuss a discount. If the problem is fixed this way, ask the client to change their review or add an edit noting that the problem they had was fixed. Publicly showing that you took action right away to fix the problem for the client will help future customers trust your shop. 

Instagram is highly visual, making it a great place for tattoo shops to post pictures. Posting your artists’ best work and curating an online how to start a tattoo business that regularly pops up in your followers’ feeds keeps your shop in their minds. 

Additionally, going live on Instagram and Facebook lets customers get an inside look at the tattooing process and feel like they have a more personal relationship with the shop. 

Using Facebook Ad funnels can help your potential customer get to know more about your shop and make them ready to book in for a tattoo. 

You can also run competitions on Facebook posts and use viral bots to message anyone who engages with them in their Facebook Messenger app. This turns them into “subscribers” that you can message in the future. 

It’s rare for small tattoo shops to invest in Google Ads, but lots of people are searching for “tattoo shops near me.” By paying for a Google Ad to put your shop as the top-ranking search, you’ll get way more eyes on your shop. 

For example, in Denver, Colorado nearly 6600* people searched for that keyword in a single month. If a Denver tattoo shop wanted their shop to be listed at the top of Google, they’d only need to pay between $0.64-$3.79 per click on their ad. (Google places the ad at the top of the page when you agree to pay that amount every time that exposure causes someone to click on your shop.)

*According to Google Ads

For example, in Denver, Colorado nearly 6600* people searched for that keyword in a single month. If a Denver tattoo shop wanted their shop to be listed at the top of Google, they’d only need to pay between $0.64-$3.79 per click on their ad. (Google places the ad at the top of the page when you agree to pay that amount every time that exposure causes someone to click on your shop.)

Selling gift vouchers makes it easier to give tattoos away as gifts. It also acts as advance pay: you get the money for the tattoo before they’ve made up their mind on what they want done. 

If your customers are spending a lot of time in the shop getting tattooed, there’s a chance they’ll want a souvenir from the shop besides the tattoo they’re getting. Merch is fairly easy and cheap to make, can generate extra income for the shop, and gets your logo (and some good word-of-mouth reviews) to new potential customers. 

You can use previous tattoo designs as graphics for T-shirts, sweatshirts, stickers, etc. This will let you advertise while also showing off your particular tattooing style. 

Using a platform like printful.com lets you test to see if a merch item will sell before you invest money in a bunch of inventory.

It’s not uncommon for tattoo shops to offer more than one service at their location. The most popular second service at tattoo shops is piercing. However, there are lots of other services tattoo customers might be interested in. If you already offer what they’re looking for, they’ll appreciate not having to waste time looking elsewhere. 

Offering clients something for free (if they buy a certain amount first) encourages them to spend more at your tattoo shop. For example:

When you follow up with a client, it shows them you care and that you’re concerned with their satisfaction, not just the money they paid for the tattoo. However, messaging every client takes up a lot of time.

Luckily, there are tools you can use to automate these follow-ups and review requests. Get great reviews by automating follow-up emails using Google Calendar, Zapier, and Active Campaign. 

Zapier can connect Active Campaign to Google Calendar so that customers automatically receive an email a week after the date of their tattoo. asking if they’re happy with the shop’s work or if they have any questions or concerns. 

If the customer responds to the email, then there’s a good chance they’ll leave a review if you ask for one. Preparing a template email will save you time during this process, and programs like Active Campaign have settings you can use to auto-fill the customer’s first name. 

This one is a bit hit or miss because it depends entirely on who your shop caters to. However, if you find an influencer that fits well with your shop, it can be like having a glowing Google Review...times ten. 

An influencer is a person with a hefty social media following (usually 10,000+ followers) who actively hypes up your shop to their followers. Your shop might give them a free tattoo. In exchange, the influencer will make several Instagram stories about their tattoo experience and then post the finished tattoo on their page and tag your shop. 

Before you reach out, make sure to look at their past posts and behavior. Make sure you’re comfortable being associated with them. And if the exchange is for a tattoo, create a contract stating exactly what you expect from them and determining what design they want before you agree. One mention from them on their Instagram is probably not worth a 10-hour tattoo.

A particular problem tattoo shops have seen post-pandemic is clients booking appointments online and then not showing up. 

Taking a deposit (either online or in person) when customers book an appointment not only makes sure the artist gets paid for their design work, but also ensures the client has some skin in the game, too. They’ll be much more likely to show up for an appointment if they know they’ll lose money for skipping.

It’s easier to get more deposits - and more clients - if you offer multiple payment methods. Some shops will stick with a cash-only policy, but this can really deter walk-ins not carrying cash and frustrate customers who would rather not make an extra stop at the ATM before going to the shop. 

Accepting online payments and all major credit cards makes you more accessible than the next shop - something that might just be the determining factor for a customer trying to choose where to get their next tattoo. 

There are two ways you can use a QR code on your business card:

This is a tiny detail, but it makes a big difference with customers. Giving clients an easy way to contact you and get an immediate response goes a long way in establishing trust. 

Discover More With the Artist Accelerator Program

Your marketing efforts should show potential customers that you are different from the competition and they should get as many people as possible to like, know, and trust you for the lowest possible cost. At the end of the day, tattoos are a luxury service. No one needs to come get a tattoo, it’s your job to make them want to come get a tattoo from you, and proper marketing is the best way to do that and grow as a business. 

In Tattooing 101’s flagship program, the Artist Accelerator, students get a taste of what shops are like all over the globe through our interviews with top-notch tattoo artists worldwide. They learn from master tattoo artists and sharpen their skills so they can take on any tattoo that walks through the door...a surefire way to rake in more clients (and more money).

When you buy the Artist Accelerator Program, you also get full access to our full library, which includes accounting advice for tattoo artists and additional growth strategies. 

Interested in becoming a tattoo artist? Visit the Artist Accelerator Program today.